Make absolutely no mistakes, Andrei Vasilevskiy was the first, second, third, fourth, and sixth star tonight. We’ll give Gage Goncalves the fifth star for his overtime, game-winning goal, but without the absolute stellar play of the Lightning netminder, this series is over. Vasilevskiy picked up his first shutout of the playoffs as he stopped 30 shots, including a brilliant two-save sequence on Ivan Demidov in the second period. He needed to make every last one of those stops as the Lightning won by the slimmest of margins, 1-0.
That allowed Goncalves to win it in overtime when he camped out in front of the Jakob Dobes, who stopped 32-of-33. Dominic James found his linemate in front of the net, and after Dobes stopped the initial shot, Goncalves was able to tap in the rebound for his first career overtime playoff goal.
It was a thrilling game despite the lack of overall scoring. Both teams played with a desperation. The Lightning needed it to stay alive in the series, and Montreal wanted to end it in front of their home crowd. The sharp play of Vasilevskiy rescued the Lightning, who gave up several odd-skater rushes as they pressed for offense. The return of Nick Paul (55.6% in the face-off dot) and Charle-Edouard D’Astous (4 shots and 4 hits in 18:29 of ice time) also boosted the Lightning’s efforts.
There was brief moment, roughly twelve minutes into the first period, where both teams took a collective breath. The rest of the first period was played at a fairly frantic pace. The Lightning, who have struggled at times to get their game started, played with the desperation needed by a team looking to avoid elimination while the Canadiens, energized by a raucous home crowd took some wild swings on counter-attacks.
That led to several flurries of action, although, oddly enough, the most dangerous chances didn’t even count as shots. On the Lightning’s side, Brayden Point’s deflection from the slot trickled just wide as Dobes was leaning in the wrong direction. A few minutes later, the big netminder was caught out of the net but Yanni Gourde couldn’t get the angle on his wraparound on the empty cage. At the other end, Cole Caufield rang one off the post and Juraj Slafkovsky had an open look on a backdoor pass that Anthony Cirelli was able to poke out of danger’s way.
The Lightning were definitely pressing play and taking a few more chances than they had in the first five games. Montreal had some issues with the pressure at times, but when they broke containment they generated chances, the most notable coming from Ivan Demidov on a two-on-one. Vasilevskiy was sharp not only on that one, but also on several down low plays including saves on Grade A chances from Jake Evans and Alexandre Texier.
Montreal had the first chance on the power play as Jake Guentzel was whistled for high-sticking (what else) with under a minute to go in the period. After some early possession to start the second period, the Lightning killed off the penalty fairly easily.
There wasn’t quite as much action early in the second period as both teams tightened things up in their own zones, but Kucherov snuck off the bench to get into a good shooting spot only to see his shot go wide. Montreal countered on the play, but Caufield saw his shot end up in Vasilevskiy’s glove.
Often, it’s the ugly play that beats a goaltender who is playing well. For the Lightning, the player who usually scores the ugliest goals of all, Corey Perry, finally beat Dobes between the five-hole after a chance in front of the net caused a little chaos. The only problem was that Phillip Danault was behind Dobes and easily swept the puck off of the goal line.
With the Lightning pinching to keep the puck in the zone, Montreal was sending a forward deep anytime a loose puck was headed towards the blue line in their zone. It paid off with a couple of odd-skater rushes, but they all went by the wayside thanks to Vasilevskiy and Darren Raddysh who slid across the ice to deny Kirby Dach.
Lane Hutson returned the favor a few minutes later when he knocked down a centering pass from Jake Guentzel to Brayden Point on one of the Lightning’s few two-on-one rushes.
Another late penalty, this one by Charle-Edouard D’Astous gave Montreal a little life. They were chomping at the bit to get the puck in the net, but Vasilevskiy had other ideas. A cross-crease pass was right on Ivan Demidov’s stick, but Vasilevskiy kicked out his big left pad to deny the shot. With the puck on his stick for the immediate rebound, the rookie Russian found out what many other players before him have, a sprawled-out Vasilevskiy can still be a tough goalie to beat. Demidov lifted the puck over the goaltender, but Vasilevskiy snatched it out of the air to keep the game scoreless.
ANDREI VASILEVSKIY WITH TWO ENORMOUS STOPS!!! 😱 #StanleyCup 🇺🇸: /espn 2 🇨🇦: /Sportsnet & /TVASports
— NHL (Bot) (@notnhl.bsky.social) May 1, 2026 at 8:57 PM
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The third period started with a choir of shots ringing off of posts. First it was Texier off the outside of the net on a play that looked a lot like his game-winning goal in Game Five. Montreal had a long sequence of play in the Lightning zone, but Guentzel blocked a pass in the neutral zone and drew a penalty as he streaked toward the net unimpeded. On the power play, the bells kept ringing as Kucherov and Guentzel both found iron on their shots.
The Lightning picked up the play on a four-on-four when a Raddysh shot hit a player in the slot. The puck dropped in front of Dobes who saw it at the last second before D’Astous can poke it between his pads. A few minutes later Kucherov had a glorious look from the slot, but the puck didn’t go in.
Late in the period, Demidov drove the net with the puck, and crashed into the netminder after Vasilevskiy made the stop. Play was stopped as the whistle blew with the refs deciding that Demidov committed goaltending interference. A questionable decision, but Montreal killed off the penalty. Mike Matheson made a nice play to tie up Brayden Point on a chance from the slot and Dobes turned aside a couple of chances from in close. To overtime the series went for the fourth time.
The first real dangerous chance came from Demidov as he cut to the slot and fired back across the grain only to have the puck encounter Vasilevskiy’s pad. Montreal controlled play early on, but the Lightning shifted the ice a bit as Nick Paul’s line had a nice sustained shift. Eventually it led to a chance for Darren Raddysh, who finished with 17 shot attempts (6 on goal). His big blast from the point was stopped by Dobes, but the puck leaked to his right. Danault took out Anthony Cirelli in front of the net, and Brandon Hagel’s attempt was fired over the net.
Nikita Kucherov was called for a trip in the offensive zone, but the Lightning killed off the penalty with Vasilevskiy besting Juraj Slafkovsky on a one-timer to the far post. That kill helped set up the big finish. Hagel kept the puck in the zone and used a moving pick from Emil Lilleberg to open up some space. He fed it down low to Dominic James who forced Kaiden Guhle to commit to blocking the pass. That left a little lane for him to feed the puck to Goncalves down low and the Portuguese Pistol did the rest.
Gage Goncalves [1] (Dominic James, Brandon Hagel) 1-0 Lightning
Game Seven is in Tampa on Sunday. It’ll be a fun one!
Vasy pad save on Dach two-on-one.
D’Astous slashing penalty with 3 to go.
Vasilevskiy back to back on Demidov
